Due to a lack of funding, UNRWA and Palestine refugees in Jordan are on the brink of a suffocating crisis

Ayman Fadilat-Amman

With great joy, the twentieth bride is watching Siham Al-Lahham her first child, but she is also waiting for a medical transfer from UNRWA to place her baby in a government hospital, where that agency will provide for the costs of delivery in that hospital.

Throughout her pregnancy, Al-Lahham was keen to see UNRWA medical clinics in the Al-Hussein refugee camp in the center of the Jordanian capital Amman, but "there is a shortage of medical drugs and laboratory tests in UNRWA clinics," she says to Al-Jazeera Net.

During the past year, UNRWA has provided health services to more than 1.2 million refugees in its camps in Jordan, through 25 health clinics, mobile dental units, pharmacies, etc., and its health centers are witnessing an increasing demand.

Lean years
To continue to provide basic services such as education, health care, relief, social services, and infrastructure to camps in Jordan, UNRWA needs funding of $ 149 million.

According to Muhammad Adar, Director of UNRWA Operations in Jordan, 2.3 million Palestinian refugees registered in the Kingdom until 2020, and about 17,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria.

Adar adds to Al Jazeera Net that, last year, UNRWA faced the most serious financial deficit since its establishment seventy years ago, in addition to the crisis of confidence in its senior leadership, but the generous support from the Jordanian state and the support of donors and partners allowed the continuation of providing basic services to Palestinian refugees.

"Deal of the Century"
Regarding the impact of that agency on the American peace plan called "Deal of the Century", Adar says, "The person who manages UNRWA's work is the United Nations, and America is part of this body and is not the only decision-maker in the world regarding UNRWA's work."

He added that the agency will continue to provide services to Palestinian refugees under the new mandate it obtained from the United Nations last year until the end of June 2023, stressing that it is a humanitarian, not a political institution.

The Fourth Committee of the United Nations General Assembly adopted by an overwhelming majority a decision to extend UNRWA's mandate until the end of June 2023, and voted in favor of the resolution 167 countries, in exchange for the objections of Israel and the United States, and seven countries abstaining from voting.

International solidarity
Political analyst Faraj Shalhoub believes that there is an international position opposed to the "deal of the century" in the part related to ending the Palestinian refugee file and the liquidation of UNRWA's work, stressing that there is room for the agency's presidency to work to obtain the necessary financial funding for its work.

Chalhoub added to Al-Jazeera Net that any deficit in UNRWA's budget will negatively impact the health, educational and living services provided to Palestinian refugees, and this will entail additional financial burdens on countries hosting refugees.

He explained that UNRWA's work has a material and service dimensions that directly affect the lives of refugees on a daily basis, and an important political dimension because the agency witnessed an internationalism on the crime of the Zionist entity by occupying the Palestinian territories and killing and displacing their owners, and any concealment of this address would constitute another crime against refugees.

Two years ago, UNRWA entered a stifling financial crisis after the suspension of US $ 365 million in project funding, when President Donald Trump decided at the end of August 2018 to completely stop funding for that agency.

However, it was able to overcome its financial crisis by compensating the financial deficit that occurred by intensifying its efforts in collecting donations from new donor countries, and others that raised the value of its contribution, in addition to austerity measures and cost savings, and the orientation towards the Arab and Islamic private sector, Zakat institutions and others.